The Gift Nobody Wants.

Did you ever get a gift for Christmas that you didn't want?

I have. When I was a Kid, at Christmas time, when other kids were getting foot balls, skate boards race tracks, etc.

I was getting converse tennis shoes, pants, shirts, Etc stuff like that.

I confess, I'm ashamed of myself now, because I didn't understand how important those things were, and the expense on my parents.

But as a little kid, it seemed to me like my parents had this conspiracy with anyone in the family, that if they got us anything it had to be clothes.

Like I said, I'm ashamed of it now, but at the time, I didn't appreciate it at all. I felt like I was being cheated. I didn't want clothes. I wanted toys.

And I wasn't very good at hiding my disappointment. In fact I didn't even try to hide it. My face broadcasted it to everyone in the room.

Mom and Dad smiled as I pulled the pants or the shirt out of the box, and they said isn't that nice, aren't you thankful? But the truth is, I wasn't thankful at all, why? Because I had received an unwanted gift.

As we study the Bible we come to know and recognize Jeremiah as the weeping prophet.

Jeremiah said of himself... Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Jeremiah 9: 1

Why was Jeremiah known as the weeping prophet? Or let me make it clearer. Why was Jeremiah always weeping?

You could say that it was because it made him sad to see all the horrible things that happened to the children of Israel, and you would be about 10% right. I'm sure it did grieve him to see the suffering of the children of Israel. But the real reason Jeremiah wept, was more than just what he saw, it was what he felt.

You see, to be a true representative and spokesman for God, he had to not only see, but he also had to feel. When God chooses someone to speak for him, be doesn’t just want their mouths, He wants their hearts also. Jeremiah not only wept for all of Israels sufferings he also wept for their sin, their stubbornness, their pride and their rebellion.

Jeremiah was like a giant tornado siren, that didn't just blast a warning, but he poured out his heart through his tears.

Jeremiah's heart was knit with the heart of God. His weeping was a visible expression of Gods mercy, his long suffering, and also of the Judgment that God had to bring on his rebellious children.

Have you ever had to punish rebellion in your children? You punished them, and it hurt your heart to do it, but you knew that rebellion had to be punished. Jeremiah wept with God, as he pronounced Gods Judgement on the rebellious children of Israel.

Jeremiah never once took joy in the suffering or the punishment of the children of Israel.

But he stood and faithfully and tearfully warned the children of Israel of the consequences of their sins. But they continuously rebelled, and resisted God's will, and chose their own rebellious path. This grieved the heart of the weeping prophet and he finally said, I can’t do this anymore.

Jeremiah 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in mine bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay.

One of the things that brought such grief to the heart of Jeremiah was that he saw so much corruption and deception in the ministry. Priests, prophets, pastors, they had all forsaken the paths of righteousness, and they all were working together like a syndicate to make money off of the people. They had no heart for the people, they saw them only as a business proposition.

In Jeremiah 5:30-31 the prophet said... A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; [31] The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Then in Jeremiah 6:13-14 he said... For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. [14] They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Jeremiah identifies the horrible thing that is happening, how the whole religious system had become a syndicate, a racket for taking from the people. And then Jeremiah said… My people love to have it so.